MacOrama für den 08. Mai 2004

AppleInsider berichtet von Apple's Richtlinien an die Angestellten in den eigenen Retail Stores:
"Do not make disparaging remarks about Apple resellers, and do not tell customers that buying directly from Apple is better than buying from a reseller," Apple warns. Likewise, the company states that employees should not imply that having Apple products repaired by Apple is preferable to having products repaired at an Apple service provider."
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Watson-Entwickler Dan Woods wundert sich in seinem Blog darüber, dass man in mannigfaltigen Programmen immer noch daran denken sollte, ab und an mal Apfel+S zu drücken:
"Twenty years ago, Apple came out with the Macintosh, and part of its user interface was the Save item in the File menu. Why was there a menu to save? Because back then, Macs had only one floppy drive and there wasn't enough space on them to store both programs and data."
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7.05.2004

1,25$ pro iTunes Music Store Song? [Update: Apple's Dementi]

Die Gossip-Experten der New York Post schreiben zumindest selbiges:
"EMI and Sony Music, which this week launched its own download service called Sony Connect, were said to be the most aggressive on pricing.
Under the terms of some of the deals, the prices for some of the most popular singles could rise to $1.25, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. Songs have previously been priced at 99 cents across the board."

Nach Steve Jobs Aussage, die kaum 10 Tage alt ist, bezweifle ich es allerdings:
"First one is the price for songs in the iTunes store is remaining 99 cents per song, and we think that's what customers want and that's what we're delivering. So the prices will remain 99 cents per song and any rumors to the contrary are simply not true."

Die Apple-Adobe 'Co-opetition'

Bei Creative Mac gehen fünf Fragen an Steve Kilisky, den Adobe After Effects Product Manager, die sich natürlich in erster Linie um die Apple-Adobe Konkurrenz insbesondere im Zusammenhang mit neuerdings Motion/After Effects und alterdings FCP/Premiere drehen:
DMN: Can you say definitively whether there will be an After Effects 7 for the Mac?
SK: There will be an After Effects 7 for the Mac. We will continue to develop our product for the Macintosh as long as the Mac platform remains viable in the markets we address with After Effects.[…]
For example, while Adobe and Apple compete in the video market, we are also partnering with them in the design and publishing markets where our Creative Suite is a huge driver for Apple's continued popularity across the creative industries. This form of mixed cooperation and competition (nicknamed "co-opetition") is simply a natural outcome of large companies working in similar markets — there are bound to be overlaps.

MacOrama für den 07. Mai 2004 [Update]

Update:
Ein paar weitere Kleinigkeiten über iPod VaterTony Fadell von Mike Wendland:
"According to friends, family and Silicon Valley lore, Fadell and his team of 35 engineers -- many of them former U-M classmates -- designed the guts of the player using a microprocessor commonly found in cell phones. Jobs, who associates say is indeed a very hands-on CEO, came up with the interface, the way it looks and operates."

'Ein Jahr mit einem Mac' bei OSNews.com:
"The Mac provided a much better experience than any system I've ever used before and none of the above compare, I'd like to stick with a Mac. It's easy and quick to set up and from then on it just does it's job, it does not get in your way or try to annoy you. It's also stable, Yes, I've seen it crash a few times but very rarely. The interface is the best in the business and it comes with some very good applications. This is the way computers should be, right now nobody else even comes close."

iBook G4 Graphics Update 1.0, 12MB groß:
"This update is recommended for the 12-inch 1GHz, and 14-inch 1.2GHz iBook G4. It updates the graphics driver to fix a compatibility issue that may exist with applications that use OpenGL."

Pixar mit ordentlichen Quartalszahlen:
"For the quarter, Pixar earned $26.7 million or $0.46 per diluted share. These results compare to earnings of $8.2 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, achieved in the year-ago quarter, and previous guidance of approximately $0.30 per fully diluted share. Revenues for the quarter were $53.8 million, as compared to $18.7 million in the year-ago quarter.
"Pixar is off to a strong start in 2004 with Finding Nemo's worldwide home video sales already surpassing Monsters, Inc." said Pixar CEO Steve Jobs."
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Ein Apple Store Mitarbeiter wurde für den Verkaufsversuch des Genius Bar Zeichens per ebay gefeuert, meldet ifoapplestore.com:
"The sign had been removed by a contractor to install the new modular sign that includes two LCD video screens, and instead of being sent back to Apple, the old sign ended up on the auction block."
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"Steve Jobs, the chairman of both Apple Computer and Pixar Animation, has, along with John Lasseter (whom Jobs calls his "creative sidekick"), been placed a the top of the list of Premiere magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in Hollywood. Last year's No. 1, Steven Spielberg, moves down to No. 2. Jobs is Disney dissidents Roy Disney and Stanley Gold's favorite candidate to replace Michael Eisner as chairman of Disney." Von Studio Briefing.
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Ein NYT Fotograf über seinen Entscheidungsprozess zwischen 12 und 15" PowerBook:
"Therefore as I contemplate my return to Macs, I am faced with the following decision: a. do I go with the 15 inch - and take advantage of the larger screen and - I assume - superior performance to deal with the oodles of images I'll shoot on a typical Olympic marathon day or b. go with the smaller, lighter 12 inch - sacrificing performance for the smaller laptop that won't be as much of the burden in the oppressive Athenian humid heat."
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AppleInsider hat einige Gerüchte zu 10.4 zusammengetragen:
"In October, sources said the company hoped to leapfrog Microsoft to market. (Microsoft's Longhorn operating system is also rumored to feature wider metadata support.) The Mac OS X metadata support would be accompanied by frameworks to distribute metadata and a superior searching system utilizing the metadata, sources said.[…]
Within the next 9 months Apple will also introduce a major revision to Safari, reliable sources said.[…]
According to one source, Apple has been working closely with governmental agencies to tailor a number of powerful Mac OS security advancements that will be fully integrated into the new system."
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David Pogue schreibt in der NYT über Sony's Connect Music Store, der wie erwartet nichts viel neues bietet, außer einem interessanten Punkt:
"A few tendrils of fresh thinking are visible through the six-foot snowbanks of commercialism. You can, for example, specify which musical genre you want to use as your "home page." And if you want to play the songs you have purchased on a second or third computer, you don't have to copy them manually from the first machine; you can download them again directly from Sony Connect without cost, which is handy if you and that second PC happen to be 3,000 miles from home."
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Die Lila-iPod mini Auktion (wie im gestrigen MacOrama erwähnt) wurde vom Verkäufer vorzeitig beendet:
"Today my daughter took the lavender mini ipod into the apple store to compare it. The one in the store was a pale pink (also didn't match the cotton candy pink on the box) it was clear that hers is lavender but please be aware that it is a pinkish lavender, not a purple."
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Derrick Story über RAW, iPhoto und Mac OS X im MacDevCenter:
" iPhoto does an excellent job of breaking digital photography's chain of pain -- that is, as long as the independent links are JPEG, TIFF, Photoshop, PNG, or a handful of other formats. But RAW files are tugging at our easygoing workflow. As you probably know, iPhoto doesn't support RAW files, at least not directly. So at first glance, it appears that the pain is returning once again."
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Der Newton hält sich standhaft, auch als Blog-Tool merkt Leander Kahney bei Wired an:
"At first glance, Apple's Newton is an unlikely candidate for such duties. For a start, Apple discontinued the much-maligned Newton in 1998. It should have gone away, but it is still used by thousands of fans, who have found lots of ingenious ways to keep the hardware and software current."
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Die MS-kritische-Mitarbeiter-feuernde-Sicherheitsfirma @stakekritisierte Apple:
"They are not characterizing the issue so that people can make a security decision about it," said Chris Wysopal, vice president of research and development at @Stake, a digital security firm that found the flaw and reported it to Apple. "It seems they think that everyone will update their computers all the time, and that is not the way the world works."
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KeyCue (12$) sieht vielversprechend aus:
"KeyCue helps you to use your Mac OS X applications more effectively by displaying a concise table of all currently available menu shortcuts."
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Im PVRblog wird über einen vorhandenen Video Player berichtet, der zudem DivX einsetzt:
"There has been a lot of speculation in the last year about when a personal video player would go mainstream in the US (they're pretty popular in Japan already), and many are waiting for Apple to take the lead and expand the iPod to serve video. Well, as I found out on a recent cross-country flight on Alaska Airlines, the technology is already here and it's pretty useful."
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Kein Masturbations-Mix im iTunes Music Store

Methodshop.com kann den angeblich ersten abgelehnten iMix vorweisen:
"For example, I thought it would be funny to submit an iMix called One to Tango: Songs with a Masturbation Theme to the iTunes Music Store.[…]
Of course Apple rejected it. I got a rejection email a couple days later and became the first iMix to be rejected by Apple. In Apple's defense, how can you not find this list disturbing?"
Aus der 'rejection-email' des iTMS:
"...or otherwise be obscene, objectionable or in poor taste..."
Wem die Seite bekannt vorkommt, dort finden sich schon seit längerem die 'Rejected iPod Engravings', von denen zumindest einige wohl wirklich von Apple abgelehnt wurden.
(via MacBidouille)

Apropos iTMS, praktische Freeware dürfte iTMS Extractor sein:
"This is a little utility to effortlessly save music videos and movie trailers from the iTunes Music Store to the user's Hard Drive."